Suturing is commonly known as the practice of using lengths of medical suture material to ligate or approximate tissue for proper healing after a surgical or other type of invasive medical procedure involving an incision. The process of suturing bodily tissue upon completion of a medical procedure, whether the particular procedure is open, endoscopic, laparoscopic, or another type of procedure, generally encompasses a substantial portion of the respective procedure time. In open-type surgical procedures, which refers to a procedure wherein the surgeon gains access to a surgical site via a relatively large incision, for example, the sutures required to properly ligate such an incision can easily take tens of minutes to properly and carefully apply. In endoscopic and/or laparoscopic type procedures, which generally refers to minimally invasive-type surgical procedures wherein the surgeon gains access to the surgical site via one or more small tissue portals/incisions, the suturing processes may be substantially more complicated, as the surgeon generally has a diminished view of an internal suturing site as well as a substantially reduced physical space for manipulating the respective suturing equipment. Therefore, the time required to suture in these internal-type situations is generally substantially longer than in open-type procedures, in addition to being substantially more difficult for the surgeon to accomplish.
In conventional medical techniques, suturing processes have generally been accomplished with the use of a sharp suture needle carrying a length of suture material, wherein the suture needle is caused to penetrate and pass through the tissue while simultaneously pulling the suture material therethrough. Once the suture material has been pulled through the tissue, the surgeon ties a knot in the suture material and secures the suture. Conventional needle drivers require the surgeon to grip the needle with the jaw portion of the needle driver, possibly locking jaws in tension with a ratchet mechanism in the handle portion, and thereafter, manipulate the needle so as to create sutures. The surgeon may engage and control the needle driver via placement of the appropriate fingers within the respective handle finger holes.
However, a surgeon's manipulation of the conventional needle driver is limited by the physical configuration of the conventional needle driver. For example, as a result of the surgeon having at least one finger placed in the finger holes, the surgeon's ability to manipulate/rotate the needle driver about a longitudinal axis of the needle driver is limited. As such, movements often require the surgeon to go through odd and/or uncomfortable motions, such as elevation of the surgeon's elbow corresponding to the hand having the needle driver therein upward in order to engage tissue with the needle. This process is known to cause strain and fatigue on a surgeon during suturing, and therefore, presents a potential for fatigue and/or strain based error. Additionally, the configuration of the jaws of conventional needle drivers results in the optimal gripping force being obtained when the jaws of the needle driver are completely closed. Inasmuch as a needle may not be gripped by the needle driver when the jaws are closed, as there is no physical space between the jaws in this position, conventional devices are not capable of gripping the needle with the optimal force available from the respective driver.
The shortcomings of conventional needle drivers are exacerbated when used in connection with microsurgery and endoscopic surgery, as these types of procedures require additional time and surgical effort to complete as a result of the nature of the surgical procedures. This can unduly prolong the duration of surgery, and therefore, prolong the period in which the patient is under anesthesia, which is undesired. Further, as a result of the less than optimal needle gripping force available from conventional devices, surgeons often have difficulty in maintaining a suture needle within the jaws of conventional devices, which may result in dropping a needle. Nevertheless, endoscopic surgery is often preferred over open surgery due to the ability to reduce incision trauma and facilitate wound healing, which directly results in cost savings associated with shorter hospital stays and performing surgery in non-hospital and/or out-patient surgery sites.
There exists a need for a needle driver that provides improved ergonomic characteristics over conventional devices so that the needle driver may be easily manipulated by the surgeon with minimal stress and/or fatigue.